250 WORLD'S PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 



received via England and Holland. The United States 

 official reports show that tea represents 27 per cent, of 

 the total value of imported merchandise into this 

 country. The gross trade in the article, however, even 

 at retail prices, does not exceed $35,000,000, the 

 total annual value of all food products being about 

 $220,000,000, of which tea only represents a value of 

 $13,000,000, equivalent to about 6 per cent, of the 

 whole. 



In round numbers the consumption of tea in the prin- 

 cipal importing countries has increased from 350,000,000 

 pounds in 1880 to upwards of 400,000,000 pounds in 1892. 

 To which may be added for the minor consuming coun- 

 tries another 60,000,000 pounds, in which case we get a 

 grand total of 460,000,000 pounds. Tea consumption in 

 India and Ceylon is scarce worth computing, and it is 

 also claimed that the consumption in China has been 

 greatly exaggerated, for although the Chinese drink tea 

 constantly much of the liquor is little different from hot 

 water, so that to credit China and her feudatories with 

 another 500,000,000 pounds would be an extravagant 

 estimate. But, admitting it to be near the mark, we may 

 then take in round numbers 1,000,000,000 pounds of leaf, 

 or say 6,000,000,000 gallons, as the world's annual con- 

 sumption of tea. But it is confidently predicted that 

 if peace be preserved and wealth and civilization continues 

 to advance that much greater increase during the closing 

 years of the present century and the whole of. the twen- 

 tieth century for large portions of mankind are at length 

 discovering that alcohol with its " borrowed fire " is a 

 deceiver and a curse. If the civilization of an age or a 

 community can be tested by the quantity of sulphuric 

 acid which it uses, much more certainly can the moral 

 status of a time and a people be j udged by a comparison 



